Starting tomorrow, Madison will play host to the fourth-annual Wisconsin Film Festival.
Two UW-Madison students, James Kreul and Wendy Weger, originally conceived the festival in 1999. The following year, the festival gained a professional director, Mary Carbine, who is still in charge of planning and organizing it.
Last year’s festival drew an estimated audience of 14,000 spectators and featured roughly 60 local and visiting speakers and filmmakers. This year will continue in that tradition; a mixture of local films, some of which were produced by UW students, and international talent is being screened.
Each year the festival features a number of annual series. These are American Cinema, Contemporary World Cinema, Experimental/New Media and Restorations/ Revivals. In addition to these, there will be group of special series this year.
“New Wave North: Recent Films from Quebec” will highlight the emerging film scene in the French-speaking Canadian province. One of the films in this series, “Maelstrom,” has received a great deal of attention from national press. It is a romantic drama narrated by a dead fish. The New York Times recently described it as “a meditation on the disconnection between the glossy surfaces of high-end urban existence and the life-and-death realities they camouflage.”
Another special series entitled “Cinema at the Crossroads: Film in the New Europe” elaborates further on the film conference held by the Center for European Studies last month. Crister S. Garrett, executive director of the European Studies Alliance, explained this series’ goal in an essay on the film fest website.
“These seven films from northern Europe, southern Europe and Africa portray in vivid and captivating detail what the broad political, social and cultural intersections between private and public lives entail,” Garrett said.
“Wisconsin’s Own Filmmakers” is another series in the program. It will give audiences a chance to see some of the exciting projects coming out of the film scene in this state. “E-Day” is included in this series and features actor Chevy Chase. It is written and directed by Scott Dikkers, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Onion.
The other special series are “Amos Gitai: Images of Exile,” “Insider” and “After Dark.”
A number of the festival’s films are already sold out, but that does not necessarily mean students will be unable to get tickets. During the festival, some sold-out shows will release “rush tickets” right before the starting time. The line for these tickets will begin 30 minutes before show time.
The Wisconsin Film Festival is steadily gaining respect and credibility nationally and internationally. The large number of Midwest premieres offered this year is a testament to that.
Seven films will appear in the Midwest for the first time this weekend. Among these is the Mathew McConaughey and Alan Arkin vehicle, “13 Conversations About One Thing.”
“I’m very excited about this year’s line-up,” Carbine said. “I think that the films and speakers are really exciting.”
